Torchwood: City of Ruin
by Maria Patenaude
Summary: The dust settles... the wind picks up. There's no such thing as a quiet night at Torchwood, where even the secrets have secrets... Part 3 of 5.
1. Chapter 1

**Part 3 of this fanfic (specifically "City of Ruin") was written after the Torchwood Season 2 finale, during Doctor Who Season 4, and pre Children of Earth. It is a diligently-researched work of love that I never intended to make public; I began it for my own enjoyment, and continued it out of love, and as a means of coping with some of the grief left behind by TW Season 2. With that in mind, R&R, and I hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Torchwood and Doctor Who are franchises that don't belong to me. I simply like to visit their 'verse and play. **

**Primarily, what's not mine belongs to Russell T. Davies et al. of the current incarnation of the Whoniverse.**

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* * *

  
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My name is Sage Smith, Torchwood Officer 000. Defender of the Earth.

Or at least I try to be.

Sol 3 has been my home for just over a century, most of my life. My home planet of Gallifrey burned and died in the Great Time War. My father destroyed it. He had to. And then he ran. He hasn't stopped running since. He didn't try to save me. He doesn't know I'm still alive.

Either by accident or fate, I wound up here. Planet Earth. One of my dad's favourites. He's come and gone many times over the years, but we've never crossed paths. At first this was on purpose. I had to watch out for Jack. He's headstrong and sort of broken. He used to think only my father could 'fix' what's wrong with him. The fact that he's an immutable point in time. The fact that he can't die.

We met when I was just a child, the day I landed here, and it was my responsibility as a daughter of Gallifrey to keep Jack Harkness from meeting my father before he was meant to, to prevent the paradox that could wipe out all existence. When the time came for them to meet again... I wasn't myself.

Back home I'd had a friend I wasn't supposed to have. He calls himself John Hart, but no one knows his real name. Back then he was just my Johnny, an older boy who was forbidden to come to our planet but did so anyway, a Time Agent who was a rogue even as a young recruit. He'd given me a gift one day, on a whim: a Vortex Manipulator. I suppose you could call it a time machine, but it wasn't really equipped to handle a voyage of such magnitude... my trip to Earth. I landed in the year 1900 and the poor, silly thing fried. I've since managed to repair it a bit, but it's not a time machine anymore. It may never be again.

The next time I saw John Hart, he was the last thing I saw for nearly nine years. I didn't recognize him... not then... nor he me. He used a concentrated burst of radiation to blind me. He thought I was human when he shot me. I _became_ human to hide from Torchwood. Then John ran from what he'd done to me. It was years before he confronted Jack again, and longer than that before I discovered the real reason why he ran. But that's a story for another time.

I work for Torchwood Cardiff, also known as Torchwood 3. We guard a Rift in space and time that runs through the city. Jack says the Rift is an ocean and we are the shore: things wash up here all the time. Weapons, creatures, slices of the past, pieces of the future... I didn't come through the Rift, but I believe it pulled me here, to Earth. I wonder sometimes if it has a mind, a consciousness, because I seem to have been brought here for a purpose. Ostensibly, to keep Jack from causing a paradox, as I've already explained. That job is done, though, and I'm still here.

Right now I'm here to help. Cardiff lies in ruins. Torchwood has just lost two key members... two amazing people, friends, that are sorely missed. My mission now is to help Jack find someone, two someones, to heal this gaping wound. Toshiko and Owen, though, can never be replaced. Sometimes I wonder if any of this would have happened if I'd never come here. If Jack had never found me. If I'd stayed in Gallifrey and died with the others. Sometimes I wonder if all of this is my fault.

* * *

These were the thoughts running through my head as Jack introduced our new recruit, Laura Harding, to the team members she hadn't yet met. Ianto Jones and I had discovered her potential just the night before. She was being introduced to Martha Jones (our friend from UNIT who was standing in for Owen until we could find a medic or until she was recalled) and to Gwen Cooper (a former police officer, now second in command). It was Toshiko Sato's post that Laura would be taking over if she passed Jack's trial by fire, but that morning I was sitting at what had been Tosh's desk, thinking dark thoughts, when Laura arrived.

"Sage?" she said to me softly. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," I lied. "I'm fine."

"Gwen says this is my post," she murmured, "but if you want to stay here for a while, that's all right. I'm sure there's something else I—"

"No, it's fine," I said, standing. "I'll get out of your way."

"Sage?" she called after me, but I ignored her. I just kept walking.

I went to the lower levels, to the firing range, and was shooting the shit out of wooden Weevil targets when I heard Jack say Martha was looking for me. I holstered my gun rather than put it away as I would have any other day, but when I took off my protective eyewear and headphones and turned, Jack wasn't in the room with me. He wasn't wearing headphones, either. He was on the other side of the glass. He hadn't spoken at all, simply projected the words right into my head, knowing I would hear them. Most Gallifreyans are... were... at least a little bit psychic, but I was even more psychic than most. Anyone who focused on a thought hard enough was fairly guaranteed that I would hear them. Jack's voice in particular was one I always heard. Maybe because I love him so much.

He was standing there with his arms crossed, smirking. I thought it was because he'd managed to get in my head again, but when I came out of the firing range he said, "Nice shooting. I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing you with a gun, though."

"Yeah, what would Daddy think?" I said sarcastically, irritated. My father was one of the universe's greatest pacifists. The Destroyer of Worlds. The Oncoming Storm. And I was his daughter, the one he'd left behind, raised by the man he'd run away from. I'd learned to fire a pistol when I was ten, but I'd never killed anyone with one.

"Sage, Martha needs to speak with you," Jack said again, this time out loud.

"I know. I heard you the first time," I muttered, pulling my blazer on over my holstered weapon.

"You already knew," Jack pointed out. "You've been avoiding her."

"I know what she's going to say," I told him, starting to walk away. He stopped me with a hand on my arm and he wasn't gentle about it.

"Maybe you don't," he told me. "She's waiting for you in the boardroom."

"Why the boardroom?" I asked him, suddenly intrigued.

"Because what she has to tell you is need-to-know and even I don't have the clearances for it," he admitted.

"But I _do_?" I raised an eyebrow.

"You don't exist," he reminded me. "Go on. CCTV is off and everything. You can call me all the names in the world if you feel like it, but go hear her out, okay?"

"Okay," I conceded. He walked off ahead of me. "Jack?"

"Yes, Sage?" He paused and turned toward me. I ran across the five yards between us and jumped into his arms, kissing him fiercely. He kissed me back, but gently, coaxing the savagery out of my lips and taming it. Each kiss was more gentle than the last until I finally broke away from him with the smallest peck. "What was that all about?" he asked me.

"Just remember that I love you, Jack," I told him. "No matter what, always know that I love you."

"Uh-oh. The last time someone said that to me, he riddled me with bullets and chained me to the wall," he remarked, eyeing me suspiciously. "Want to put that gun back into storage, Sage?" he said, only half-jokingly.

"No," I said firmly.

"Want to tell me why not?" he inquired sternly, all the fun gone from his voice.

"I can't," I told him gently. "I have to go somewhere, and you can't come, all right? Don't tell Ianto until I've gone, and don't follow me."

"You're scaring me," he admitted.

"I'm coming back," I assured him. "I swear to you, I'm coming back. Don't follow me."

I ran from him then, ran past Ianto's confused frown and straight to Martha. I already knew part of what she was going to say.

* * *

"I'm leaving soon, then," she concluded. "That's all I've told Jack."

"I can't help you," I told her.

"I thought you'd want to see him," she voiced, confused.

"I'm not so sure he'd want to see me," I admitted. "I've been hiding from him for a very long time; at first because I had to, but now... I don't think he'd be very pleased to see what I've become."

"What? Torchwood? Jack explained to him about this branch of Torchwood," she told me.

"I know..."

"Then what are you keeping from me, Sage? Why are you still hiding?"

"He abandoned me!" I admitted angrily.

"Oh. My. God," Martha blurted. "He's your father, isn't he!? I don't know how I missed... He said the planet burned, that everyone died... Are you sure he never looked for you?"

"What?"

"You left as it was happening. Are you sure he never tried to find you?"

"I have to go," I said, standing.

"Just think about it, Sage, all right? I could use your help. And I think you should talk to him. Find out what really happened," Martha pressed.

"I'll think about it," I said, opening my wrist strap. "I'm glad to have met you Martha Jones. I hope you're still here when I get back, but if you're not... You've been fantastic."

Before she could say another word, I was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm here to see Faith," I told the bodyguard, who stepped aside. Anyone else would have been stopped, but not the one who knew her name. Not even Jack knew the Seer's name... or if he did, he pretended not to.

"It's good to have you back, Sage," the little girl said as she shuffled her Tarot deck. It was a special deck, and she was a special little girl... Far older and wiser than I was. I climbed the steps slowly. "It's been a long battle, and you've awoken in the City of Ruin," she said when I was still behind her. "Sit, please, Sister Seer," she said. I moved around the table and took a seat. The last person she'd allowed in was Jack. He'd come after Owen died, the first time Owen died, when there was still enough of Owen to resurrect. Death had come back with Owen, just as it had with Faith centuries before. She was the one person whose mind I could never read. "The cards, Sister? Or shall we talk? It's been forever." The last time I'd come to her had been in 1999, just before I had turned myself into a human. I had asked her if it was the right thing to do. She had said it was what I _must_ do. Terrible things had come of it, but even in the City of Ruin I still trusted her.

"Let's talk," I said.

"How is the Captain? I know of your losses," she said.

"Worried," I told her. "Blaming himself."

"Yes. That's the Captain," she sighed. "And you? The same as he. Blaming yourself. It was another who made the choices, not you."

"I wasn't here. I could have—"

"Died," Faith said plainly.

"What?"

"If you had been here, Sister Sage, you would have died. Do you really think the Gray One knows no ways to kill the Lady of Time?" she said rather serenely, turning the Tower card 'round and 'round on its corner. "Your friends would still have died, and so would you. That's why I told of the House of Blue."

"_You_ called Ianto about my father?" I blurted, astounded.

"He did," she gestured with her thumb over her shoulder. "But yes. I gave you the choice. A chance. You're still needed here. You _know_ that."

"Yes, I know that, but _why_? What for?"

"Cards?" she offered again.

"Not yet," I said. "My father... should I try to see him again?"

"One day," Faith said softly, "he will come to you."

"Then I shouldn't go with Martha?"

"She has her own path," she said, putting the Tower card in her pocket.

"What does that mean?"

"Love," she said. "Love your friends while you still can. 'Time doesn't end'," she echoed something I'd said to Jack, long ago. "'We do.'"

"I got a message from John," I told her. "He's in Spain."

"The Lonely Wanderer," she murmured. "You still don't trust him... Cards?"

"No, Faith. I want a straight answer. Should I go speak to John, or is it a trap?"

"Life is a trap," she said, "and so is Death. He needs you, though. It's not _his_ trap."

"He's in trouble, then?" She nodded. "That's what I thought. That's what I felt."

"He has answers for you," Faith told me. "Help him, and he will help you see."

"And if I don't?" She pulled the Tower card back out of her pocket and placed it in front of me. "I wish you'd had better news for me, Faith," I said, standing.

"So do I. How about you? Any news for me?" she ventured.

I shook my head. "Maybe my father knows."

"Ask him when he comes for you," she said with a smile. "And Sage... good luck."

"Thanks," I said, then teleported out.

"You'll need it," she said in my wake, turning The Lovers off the top of her deck, then laying The Tower over it. She turned another card over and laid it atop the other two. It was The Star, the beacon of hope, and the girl on the card resembled me. "You, Sister Sage," she whispered "are Hope. Tell them. Tell John. Tell them all."

Inside the Vortex, I saw and heard this, as she'd known I would. It gave me strength. When I'd reached the point of origin of John's signal, I needed that strength.

Meanwhile, back at Torchwood...

* * *

"Barcelona," Laura told Jack.

"What's in Barcelona?" Martha asked her.

"Somebody or something very important, or she wouldn't have taken pains to hide it," Laura pointed out.

"She wouldn't have tried to hide it unless she wanted you to find it," Ianto told them all. "She did it to draw attention to it."

"He's right," Jack agreed. "Ianto knows how she thinks."

"Did she say or do anything that was unusual? Something that might have been a clue?" Martha ventured.

"She said 'Remember that I love you'," Jack said, "and she also said 'Don't follow me.' As if I could. She's the only one with a working Teleport."

"John," Ianto said.

"Huh?" Jack blurted.

"That's what you said when he first came back. 'Don't follow me.' And he said that about remembering he loves you right before he—" Jack made a noise in his throat to cut him off before he could say anything in front of Laura. "Also, she's got her voicemail working. She must have been tracing his signal."

"Which would mean he left her a message, but he wasn't able to complete it, _or_ he's luring her into a trap," Gwen voiced.

"Trap," Ianto and Jack said simultaneously.

"No, no, I don't think so," Gwen murmured pensively. "John stopped her as he was leaving. I saw it in the CCTV from that night. She was waving her sonic thing at him like a sword or something... He said something to her, and he kissed her. I think he was apologizing for blinding her. You don't stop to say somethin' like that unless you mean it, especially to someone who's in a great bloomin' hurry to get past you."

"So John's in trouble," Jack mused. "Why would he call Sage?"

"She was his friend, Jack. He saved her life," Ianto said. Jack just stared at him, dumbfounded. "You never asked her where she got a Vortex Manipulator?"

"She said her friend Johnny. I never thought of John Hart," he admitted. "John never told me he'd been to Gallifrey, or that he'd ever had a friend there. I'm an idiot," he decided.

"I'm lost," Laura voiced. "Will somebody please speak English?"

"Suffice it to say that if John Hart was calling for help, he's in big trouble. He's the sort of person who'd cut off his nose to spite his face. And if he called Sage instead of me... it's legal trouble of the Intergalactic kind. Probably the Shadow Proclamation," Jack mused.

"That's like a board or something?" Martha ventured. "Judges? I heard the Doctor mention them more than once. This or that was in violation of the Shadow Proclamation. Oh!" she suddenly gasped.

"What?" Jack asked her.

"Judoon."

"They only interfere when it's an alien incursion, and then only for pay," Jack told her.

"Oh. Well, the Doctor never mentioned anyone else involved in this Shadow Proclamation."

"It's more like an understanding among certain peoples than a board per se," Jack attempted to explain. "At one time Gallifrey and Skaro were both a part of it."

"Isn't Skaro the planet of the Daleks?" Martha asked, surprised.

"It was. It burned with Gallifrey."

"Anyone else?" Ianto prompted.

"The Arterans, Castus Six, The Sycorax... well, up until they went rogue and Torchwood One blew up one of their mother ships... Restus Three—" (1)

"Sycorax?" Laura interjected. "Isn't that Shakespeare?"

Martha snickered. "Probably the Doctor's fault."

"The Doctor?"

"Sage's father. He and I've met Shakespeare," Martha said. "If I got him to say 'Expelliarmus', I'm sure the Doctor could have made him say Sycorax."

"You're weird," Laura stated.

"Thanks," Martha tossed back coolly.

Just then, Jack's wrist strap beeped. He pressed a button and my voice said the following: "Jack, I'm sorry I ran out on you like that. I thought if I told you what's happening, you might try to stop me. The Shadow Proclamation sent representatives to investigate the Adipose situation, and it seems they heard about the Cardiff bombings; how most of the damage was caused by rift storms enhanced and focused by alien technology. Jack... they're blaming it on John. Worse yet, they've sent the Arteran Seek. I'm the only one on this planet with the authority to deal with this, Jack, but it could get ugly. I'm tracking John's signal, and I'm hoping to get to him before they vote him guilty. You know what that would mean, I'm sure. Tell Ianto I love him. And Jack... I love you, too. I want you both to know that. Tell the girls 'chin up'. If anyone can out-think an Arteran, it's me... I'll see you soon."

"Of all the races in the known universe—"

"Jack," Ianto inquired, "what are Arterans? What does a guilty sentence mean?"

"Arterans are highly psychic. Their idea of justice is the death penalty," Jack said. The girls gasped. "But it's no ordinary death. They blank your mind, empty it of all thought and reason, and then they leave your empty shell alive, starving, thirsty, and filthy, until you just stop breathing."

"I think that's the worst thing I've ever heard," Martha murmured.

"Jack, what's she going to do?" Gwen inquired.

"Give testimony."

"How?"

"By opening her mind to them," he said, swallowing hard. Ianto blanched and fell to his knees. "Whoa! Hey," he went to him, kneeling in front of him, "Sage can handle it."

"You don't know that for certain, Jack," he moaned.

"I know a girl, a Seer, who calls Sage 'The Shining Star'. Do you know what the Star is in Tarot, Ianto?" Jack said. "Hope. Sage is hope. She's doing exactly what you said she would."

"What did I say?" Ianto asked him.

"She's being strong on her own."

* * *

1) I made all of these up, except for the Sycorax, the race who used blood control to attempt to dominate the earth by threatening to make all the A-positives jump off their roofs. It was a bluff, though. You can't hypnotize a person into killing themselves.


	3. Chapter 3

When I found John, he was screaming.

"By convention of the Shadow Proclamation, cease this interrogation!" I shouted.

"Tiiiiime Lord!" the leader of the Arteran retinue exclaimed in a breathy, quavering voice. "Speak your name, or you shall have no authority heeeeere."

"I am the Sage," I stated. John was shaking, drenched in sweat, on the floor beside the head Arteran. They wore cloaks that hid their faces, and with good reason. Their mouths were more like suction cups than anything else, and they had no eyes, their skin hanging in wrinkled black folds. When J.K. Rowling wrote of Dementors, I think an Arteran must have passed near her in her sleep. They get high off the ideas which flow through great minds. Tolkien had written of them, too. They were the Nine, the Wraith, and the Arteran Seek was always comprised of nine.

"The Saaage," the head Arteran echoed. "State your purpose in coming heeeere."

"I have come to testify on behalf of your prisoner, John Hart. He is wrongfully accused. The author of the crimes committed in Cardiff was Grey, brother of—"

"Testifyyyyy!" the Arterans chorused excitedly.

"Sage," John managed to ask me hoarsely, "what are you doing?"

"Repaying my debt, Johnny," I told him, kneeling to kiss him tenderly on the lips. "Whatever you do, don't run. It'll draw their attention. I want them focused on me," I whispered. "Now stand. Leave slowly." He did as I said, shakily, and I lifted my face to the Arteran leader. "My mind is opened to you, Arteran Seek. The truth is yours. See it."

I showed them everything I'd seen on the CCTV, everything the comms had recorded, the things I'd seen in the minds of my teammates in the days following the disaster. They drank deeply. Sorrow and pain were their favourite flavour. They found something I hadn't thought to hide, though, and latched onto it.

"Breeeeeach, Tiiiime Lord! Breach of honour! Breach of code!" cried the leader.

John had been halfway to the door at this point, but he turned back and called out to them. "What breach of code?"

"Viiiiiolation of Gallifreyan Ordinance 416. Vortex Manipulator. Tiiiime device. Never in the hands of a chiiiiild!"

"Birthday," I gasped as they pulled harder at my mind. "I was a child no more! Eighth birthday! Initiation. John came after!"

"Chiiiiild!" they cried in unison.

"John!" I shouted. "Run!"

"Sage, I won't leave y—"

"_Run!!!_"

When John Hart ran, the Seek's attention diverted to him and they let go of my mind. I flew to my feet and drew my gun, shooting a hole in the floor by the leader's feet to bring their attention back to me.

"Innocence has been proven," I stated. "Leave this planet. You have no more business here."

"Weeee shall be back, Tiiiiime Lord," the leader said, then they teleported back to their ship and out of our lives.

"The Arteran Seek, John?" I said, holstering my gun. "Do you have any idea what they would have done to you?"

"Turned me into a drooling idiot and watched me die," he stated. "Great Goddess, Sage. You were brilliant!" He drew me into his arms, spun me around, and kissed me firmly. "We should celebrate this. We need drinks. Lots of drinks!"

I chuckled. "All right, Johnny, drinks. But let me tell Jack I'm okay first will you?"

"No, Sage. Call Jack later. I have things to tell you," he said, his voice going sober.

"A quick voicemail," I told him. "Please? He worries."

"And so does Eye-Candy," he guessed. I gaped at him and he laughed. "I'll do it. I've still got video on mine." Moments later he was recording a message, standing just behind me with his arm about my waist. "Hello, Jack," he said. "I'm sure you tried to stop her, but she saved my life anyway. Great for me, probably not so great for you, but I'll stay in the queue a while longer for that hug you owe me. Eye-Candy! Your little friend has a quick mind and a lightning gun-hand. You reminded me of her from the first, you know, and that's a compliment. She'll be home soon enough." Then to me, "Go on, Sage. Speak your piece."

"We're fine, Jack, Ianto, everyone. I promise. I'll tell you everything when I get back. I love you."

"Did you get a blonde yet?" he asked me after switching off the hologram recorder.

"We did, actually. But you're not her type, sorry," I teased him.

"Oh, so _you_ are!" he teased me back. "You get to have all the fun."

* * *

"Why Spain?" I asked John as we sat down in a quaint little restaurant.

"Why not?" he replied. "They're gorgeous, and everything they say sounds so sexy. I don't understand a word of it, mind you, but all I really need to know is '¿Quieres tener sexo conmigo?' (1) and 'Sí' and 'No'."

"Sangría, por favor," I ordered from the waiter as he stopped by our table.

"See? Right there. That was sexy," John remarked playfully.

"Deje la jarra," (2) I added as the waiter was pouring out our drinks.

"Sí, señorita. ¿Desea ordenar algo para comer? ¿Algún aperitivo?" (3)

"No, gracias," (4) I replied.

"¿Quieres tener sexo conmigo?" John teased me. He was only half teasing, though, and he knew that I knew it.

"What was it you wanted to tell me, John?" I asked, sipping my drink.

"It's about when I blinded you," he told me, draining his first glass of sangría in one gulp. "It wasn't about you. I would never have hurt you, Sage."

"You didn't recognize me?"

He shook his head. "I came to see Jack. I saw you with him."

"You were jealous."

"And you were beautiful. You still are. I hurt you where he was sure to find you—"

"On my front step!"

"—and then I hid. He called you Sage, not Miranda. He asked you to regenerate. That's why I ran. You were the only real friend I ever had."

"Oh, Johnny..."

"I was ashamed of what I'd done to you. For the first time in my life, I was truly ashamed," he admitted.

"I forgive you," I told him gently. He smiled, then clasped my hand and kissed it.

"You lied for me today," he pointed out. "You told them I gave you this after your initiation," he said, fingering my wrist strap.

"So it was actually the day before. No big deal," I shrugged.

"Legally, yes big deal," he said. "But that's not the interesting part. The _really_ interesting part is that you lied to the Arteran Seek and got away with it. You always knew when I was on Gallifrey when everyone else was oblivious, too," he added. "Just how psychic _are_ you?"

"Enough to fib to the Arteran Seek when I'm very determined not to get mind-wiped," I said evasively. "So, where are you going next?" I asked John, watching him down another glass of sangría.

"I was thinking New York," he told me. "They speak English there. Sort of. I wish you'd come with me."

"I can't," I reminded him with a small smile.

"I want to be you _so_ badly right now," he admitted.

"No, you really don't," I told him. "It's too complicated."

"Two gorgeous boys all for you and it's complicated?" he teased, leaning back in his chair.

"It really is," I told him. "I love them both, I want them both, they want me, they want each other... It's a mess."

"It's an orgy," he stated. "Enjoy it."

"That's the thing... It's not. Jack loves me in a way that he thinks having sex with me is kind of wrong."

"Oh, the brother/daddy syndrome," John guessed. "He'll get over it. And if he doesn't, come to New York. I really am a good wife," he winked, making me giggle.

"I've got to get back," I told him, wishing I could stay.

"And I've got to get out of town in case there are any other goons waiting for me. Take care of the team, and give Jack my love," he said, standing. "Give him this, too," he added, kissing me softly. "And keep this one for yourself," he whispered against my lips before parting them gently with his tongue.

I was still drunk on that kiss when I teleported out of the restaurant's bathroom and accidentally ended up outside of the Hub. Just as well. It would have been awkward to explain the dazed look on my face.

* * *

1) Do you want to have sex with me?

2) Leave the pitcher.

3) Yes, miss. Would you like to order something to eat? An appetizer?

4) No, thanks.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sexual Content Alert! This chapter NSFW!**

* * *

I was nearly squeezed to pieces when I walked back into the Hub unscathed. First Gwen and Martha sandwiched me between them, Laura joining them a moment later. She pressed her forehead to mine, crying openly. Ianto was crying, too. I could see him over Laura's shoulder. I pushed her aside as gently as I could, murmuring that I was all right to Gwen and Martha so they'd let me go.

Ianto pulled me close, crying into the crook of my neck. "I'm sorry, sweetheart," I murmured to him. "I had to."

"I know," he said, his voice constricted. "You should have told me, though. I wouldn't have stopped you."

"It was too dangerous, and you would have wanted to come," I pointed out. "Where's Jack?" He released me from the tight embrace, then moved aside so I could see where Jack was, standing behind him with his arms crossed as he'd been since my arrival. "Oh."

A small smile formed at the corners of Jack's mouth in spite of his display of grave annoyance, and finally he opened his arms to me. I ran to him, and he picked me up off my feet, holding me at eye-level. "Did they hurt you?" he asked me. I shook my head. "Really?"

"Really, Jack. I'm fine."

"And John?"

"Shaken, but fine," I told him. "He sent you this," I told him, passing on the kiss.

He chuckled. "Yeah, he's fine. What exactly did he say that made you run off to his rescue like that?"

I pressed a button on my wrist strap, still balanced in Jack's arms, and John's voice said in hushed, desperate tones. "Sage, I need to talk to you. You're the only one who can help. I think someone is—"

"'Following me'," I completed the sentence after the audio cut off. "I heard it," I said tapping my temple. "I had to go alone," I told him. "I couldn't risk any of you getting hurt, but I owed it to him. In spite of everything, I owed him."

"You _are_ your father's daughter," he murmured. "He'd have been so proud of you."

"Not for pulling a gun on the Arteran Seek," I admitted, blushing. "I was expecting Castus Maximus's clockwork soldiers when I took the gun."

"What did you shoot?" he asked me. I noticed he didn't ask _who_.

"The floor."

"Definitely the Doctor's daughter," he remarked, kissing me tenderly. "You taste like sangría."

"Well, you know how John gets after a good fight," I put in. Jack laughed, but his laughter didn't last long. I'd gone pale and clammy. I heard him calling out to Ianto from several miles away.

"No, get the brandy from my office," he said to something Ianto had asked about dehydration. "The brain needs alcohol after an encounter with the Seek. I guess she didn't have enough."

"John must be _fine_ then," Gwen remarked, coming to where Jack had laid me on the couch. "You all right, Sage?" I reached for her hand and missed. She clasped it and held it tightly.

Jack was saying something to Martha about a needle. "Intravenous brandy, Jack? Don't ever tell anyone I actually made someone a brandy IV; I'll never live it down."

"Laura. Laura!" Jack was saying, annoyed. "Oh, just get out of the way." He pushed her firmly into one of the office chairs. She was still sitting there when I came out of my daze about half an hour later.

"I can't believe that worked," Martha said, checking my pupils, then removing the IV.

"I smell like the pub on Ladies' Night," I remarked, making her laugh.

"Well, you're sweating out brandy. Are you going to be hung-over?"

I shook my head. "What you saw earlier, _that_ was the hang-over. I should have had more to drink, but I wanted to get back so badly... Where's Ianto?"

"Right here," he spoke up, patting my ankle, as he was sitting by my feet.

"And Jack?"

"On the phone with the Prime Minister. Again. Gwen's right over there ordering us pizza," she pointed, "and Laura... well, she hasn't moved for the past fifteen minutes or so," she remarked. "Laura? You all right?"

"Hmm?"

"Sage is awake. Are you okay?" Martha asked her again.

"Not really," Laura admitted, still looking dazed. "I thought I'd be doing admin. Fixing computers. This place is mad," she said softly.

"You won't last long if you don't show some backbone," Martha told her, firmly but not unkindly. "The _universe_ is mad. You have to learn to beat it at its own game." She approached and told her softly, "You have to turn love into strength, not a weakness. Even when it's unrequited. It's the only way you can keep everyone safe... Sometimes you lose people. Even the Doctor has lost people. Still, he never stops fighting for what's right and what's good; he never loses faith in us. Find your strength, Laura Harding. Take a stand before you fall."

"I don't know how," Laura admitted.

"You'll learn," Martha told her. "We all have."

* * *

I took a shower before sitting down to pizza with the others, but my skin was still bleeding brandy. I'd put on an old sundress from the '30s that was overdue to be disposed of and a pair of ballet flats that was much newer but equally worn out.

I sat across from Ianto, Jack between us at the head of the table. Gwen pinched her nose shut to tease me.

"Oh, I know. I reek," I said apologetically.

"I may get a hangover just from the fumes," she added, elbowing me gently in the side.

"I prefer to take my alcohol direct-route," Jack put in, then came around the table and bent to run his tongue across my shoulder, then up my neck, in small, sensual circles. My eyes fluttered closed in arousal, and when I opened them again I saw Ianto watching us with raw hunger. "Excuse us," Jack said lightly, then lifted me out of my chair and over his shoulder in one smooth movement.

"Jack!" I protested, giggling.

"Coming, Ianto?" he inquired.

"I hope so," he said, standing.

"Don't call unless the Hub's on fire," Jack told Gwen, then used my wrist strap to teleport the three of us out of there...

...and directly into Ianto's bedroom. He set me down gently on the edge of the bed, tipping my chin up so I was looking directly into his eyes as he unzipped the back of my dress. "Remember when it was considered sinful for a woman to wear clothing with a zipper?" he murmured as he drew the tab slowly downward.

"They said it made one's clothes come off too fast," I remarked, thinking I would spontaneously combust if he moved any slower.

"Ianto," he beckoned, standing aside. "Help Sage with her dress."

Ianto knelt at my feet, slipping the straps off my shoulders, baring my breasts to his hands and mouth. I hardly noticed he'd pulled Jack down beside him until I felt a mouth suckling at each breast, a tongue toying with each taut nipple. Jack grazed his teeth across my left in that way he knew I loved, and I gasped, desire pooling between my legs. It was Ianto that pressed me down onto the bed and pulled my dress the rest of the way off, Jack that pressed his mouth to my mons through my plain cotton panties, Ianto that took off my shoes, running his hands and mouth caressingly up my thighs.

I had thought I'd be confused the first time we engaged in a sexual act together; that I would lose track of limbs and mouths and who was touching what; but I didn't. Ianto's hands were softer, his touch more urgent and passionate. Jack had the skill of patience and long practice. I found the contrast incredibly arousing.

Jack moved back up to my breasts and mouth. Ianto divested himself of his tie and me of my underwear, plunging his tongue into the core of me, not bothering to tease me as Jack would have. I had a hand loosely coiled in the unruly hair of each of the men I loved, and with their own hands and mouths they brought me to my peak, the climax rushing over me in a wave so intense that I cried out.

They held me as my body relaxed, then moved on to the business of pleasuring each other, face to face, pressed between each other's thighs, their clothes loosened but, for the most part, still on. I watched and listened, and when I could tell Ianto was near climax I drew Jack's earlobe into my mouth and bit down on it gently so that they would come together. After that I just laid still, pressed up against Jack as they dozed hand in hand.

"I wish we could bottle that," Jack murmured after a long while, holding Ianto's hand and mine, drawing them together so they met over his heart.

"I love you, too," Ianto and I both murmured at the same time. Jack chuckled.

"I hate to have to say this, but we'd better go back," he told us.

"You'll need to wash these sheets, Ianto, but at least I'm not leaking booze anymore," I said, then giggled.

"We all need to shower now," he remarked. "For... various reasons."

"One at a time," Jack told us. "We'll never get out of here otherwise," he pointed out when we looked at him inquiringly.

There was suddenly a space between Ianto and me, but it didn't take us long to remedy that. His mouth tasted of coffee and brandy, Jack and Ianto, and of myself. We were so lost in long, languid kisses that we didn't notice when Jack emerged from the bathroom, smelling of Ianto's soap, until he touched Ianto's shoulder.

Then it was Jack I sat with, and he sang Cole Porter's "In the Still of the Night" softly with his cheek against the top of my head, kissing me softly between verses.

I sang "Caro Nome" from Verdi's _Rigoletto_ as I showered. I often slip back into Opera in the bath. I think it's the acoustics. Or maybe my mother listened to Old Earth Opera while I was in the womb. That was a question I intended to pose to my father. That and my mother's name. She was human, not a Time Lord, and had died giving birth to me. That was all I knew. The rest I'd never had the opportunity to ask.

The boys had tidied while I was bathing, and we teleported into the room off Ianto's mock office where my suitcase was so that I could change into something fresh. Jack kissed each of us before going back into the Hub. As I was changing into jeans and a peasant blouse, Ianto surprised me by singing "Pretty Women" from Stephen Sondheim's _Sweeney Todd_ in a soft baritone that was rather unlike his slightly gruff speaking voice. I believe I may have blushed every possible shade of pink in existence before he was done.

John is a tenor and Gwen says Tosh had a very lovely soprano voice. Pity we'll never be able to have Musical Torchwood, as Ianto is so shy he won't even sing in front of Jack. Only for me. Ironic, that. But Johnny was really on to something when he said Ianto reminded him of me from the first.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hello again," Martha said, sneaking up on me as I was attempting to hack into Toshiko's laptop. She hadn't left any note of the password and Laura had already failed at file retrieval via external hard drive enclosure. Every single file was password protected, double encrypted, and her password-cracking program didn't work on the encoding she'd used. She was too good at secrecy, my Toshiko. Laura had given the job over to me because she hadn't known Tosh at all and "Owen", "Tommy", "Tosh Loves Owen" and other such frivolities Gwen had tossed her way hadn't worked. "How's that coming along?"

"Slow work," I admitted. "I wish she'd had a cat." Most single women who had cats used their feline friend's name as a password. Odd but true.

"Did you finally get past second base?" she whispered in my ear.

"Third," I whispered back.

"And? Tell me; I'm going mad from the suspense!"

"We... I don't know how to explain it. It was... like a perfect three-part harmony," I told her. I'd been thinking about musicals since we'd gotten back to the Hub, and on a whim I typed Miss Saigon. (1) "Shit! It worked! I'm in!!!" I exclaimed. "Jack!" I called out. He was passing from the hothouse to his office and stopped cold at my excitement. "Tosh's password!"

"What was it?" he called down.

"You never would have guessed it," I told him, unlocking a couple of files to make sure she'd used the same password. "Miss Saigon!"

"You're kidding," he blurted. "I didn't even know she _liked_ musicals."

"Gwen told me Tosh could sing. I had music on the brain and pictured her as the lead in 'Miss Saigon'. Maybe it was her secret ambition or something," I supplied.

"Good work, Officer 000," he told me with a wink. "Martha, could you bring that up here for me? I need a word with you, and Sage apparently needs coffee," Jack said as Ianto came my way with two coffees, one of them my extra special chocolate cappuccino.

"Did you ever know that you're my hero?" I said to Ianto, still jazzed on music. He broke into a sunny grin.

"I might need some coffee magic later, myself, Ianto," Martha told him as she was passing.

"Always at your service, Miss Jones," he told her.

"Good to hear, Mr Jones," she quipped, then went up to Jack's office.

"Where's Gwen?" I asked Ianto as he sat with me on the sofa and handed me my mug.

"Sorting some transport route priority issue. Rhys says Transportation is going about the repairs all wrong, Jack agreed, Gwen was sent," he explained. "Should be back soon."

"And Laura?"

"Central Servers again. Officially this time. She's bossing around about ten IT blokes, most of them older than her. I think she's in Feminist Tech Heaven," Ianto told me with a grin.

"I'll bet. Odd she didn't ask me along," I mused aloud.

"Martha gave her quite the speech about being strong in spite of her feelings for you. Something about making them an asset rather than a weakness. You were still pretty groggy; guess you missed it," he told me.

"I heard the last part. About my father," I murmured. "I guess it worked. Hooray for Martha, then. I was starting to wonder if dragging Laura into this mess was going to end with Jack freezing me in Cryo Bay 39 just to shut my big stupid mouth."

"You're the farthest thing from stupid, Sage," Ianto chided. "And I love your mouth." I giggled like a schoolgirl and kissed him, a quick peck on the lips.

"Now that I've handed over Miss Saigon," I remarked, "I'm out of work. Weevils have been quiet, John's in New York, no blowfish driving sports cars..."

"You could play 'extremely bored Tourist Information desk jockey' with me," Ianto offered. "Or... you could play 'extremely sexy girlfriend of extremely bored desk jockey' and snog my face off," he ventured.

"I'll go with 'b'," I replied.

"Sounds more diverting, doesn't it," he remarked, acting serious.

"Yeah, definitely."

"'B' it is," he agreed, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward his mock office at a run. We laughed the entire way, and somehow managed not to spill a drop of coffee.

* * *

I had my back to Ianto, my hair pinned up with a pencil from his desk and the neck of my blouse loosened and pushed down so he could massage my shoulders. He really _was_ good with his hands, and I was about to remark on that when he kissed my neck tenderly.

"You smell like vanilla and orange blossoms," he murmured against my skin. "I thought you didn't wear perfume... Wait, is that _chocolate_?"

I chuckled. "Martha gave it to me," I explained, pulling a small glass spray bottle from my pocket to show him. "It's called Miss Fortune." (2)

"Misfortune?" he echoed, aghast.

"No," I giggled. "Miss Fortune. Martha says she bought it off a friend in London, and she absolutely adores it, but her boyfriend wouldn't leave her alone about the 'negative connotations' of its name, which is of course completely backwards. It's actually a lucky name."

"Superstitious," Ianto remarked.

"And persistent. He bothered her so much about it she had to stop wearing it, but she paid ten quid for it, and it's lovely, so she says she's been carrying it around with her until she found 'a true chocolate lover who deserved to enjoy it'."

"It suits you," he told me as I pocketed the bottle.

"Thanks," I said, blushing again.

"You're going to miss her," he said softly.

"Very much," I sighed, leaning back against his chest. He rested his chin on my shoulder, wrapping his arms around my waist.

"Haven't had many girl friends, have you," he guessed.

"I haven't had many _friends_," I blurted. "It's... difficult."

"Trusting people is always difficult," he murmured. "Then you add the things we know..."

"And the things we _are_," I put in.

"And it just becomes this minefield," Ianto concluded. "But when you _can_ trust someone, Sage, never let them go. Toshiko and Owen loved you, too," he said, and I burst into tears. "We're allowed to love them still," he told me.

"Ón saol seo go dtí an saol eile," (3) I murmured, drying my eyes.

"Gaelic?" he ventured.

I nodded. "'From this life to the next.'"

"Where'd you learn that?" he asked me, curious.

"On the telly," I admitted, and he chuckled. "Heath Ledger," I sighed. "You don't have to be Torchwood to die young."

"And it never gets easier, losing people," Ianto sighed. "Jack says it's harder every time." He went quiet for about a minute or so, then asked me. "Will he ever...?"

"Really die?" I finished for him. "One day, I suppose. My father says he's 'impossible' and 'wrong' and that as a Time Lord he instinctively ran from that. I've never gotten that feeling, though," I said softly. "To me it's sort of comforting."

"That he'll always be there?"

"No, not really," I chuckled. "He runs off and doesn't tell you why, dies six times or a hundred, comes back changed... But he _always_ comes back."

"And he knows we'll always forgive him," Ianto added, his voice grave and sad.

* * *

I had my clothes put right when the man with an armload of flowers pushed the door open, but I was using the pencil from my hair to draw a Dalek for Ianto, and he was leaning over to blow teasingly in my ear at the moment the man walked in.

"May I help you?" Ianto inquired.

Instant professional. Just add purpose.

"Is there a Sage here? No last name... Or I also have instructions to leave it with an Ianto Jones," the man ventured.

"I'm Sage," I told him, standing. I saw Ianto's hand go discreetly to his gun under the desk. "Sage _Smith_," I said pointedly, smiling sardonically. "I suppose that makes me forgettable."

"No, miss. Quite the contrary," he said, handing me a bouquet of a baker's dozen purple roses in a crystal vase. "These are for you," he said, "and this." He handed me an envelope. "Had a man in this afternoon, requested them special, but we were short. He said if he could come all the way from Barcelona to order them, we could go all the way to London to find them." My eyes widened at that. "So, miss, you're far from forgettable. Sign here, please."

With my arms full of roses and my eyes full of shock, I hadn't yet recovered when Ianto said, "I'll sign. I'm Ianto Jones."

"In that case, sir, this is yours," the delivery man said, handing Ianto a second envelope, this one red, "and I'll require two signatures." Ianto looked startled as he accepted the envelope, but he put his name down twice on the delivery form and managed to thank the man and wish him a good night.

"Are these from John?" he asked me. I had just counted the roses and had tears in my eyes. "Sage?"

"Yes, they're from John," I managed to say.

"Are you all right?" he asked me, guiding me back down to the footstool I'd been sitting on.

"Yes, I'm fine. It's just... Thirteen Sterling roses. Only John would have known." Ianto was still looking at me with concern. "We had purple roses on Gallifrey. True purple, not tinted, and not Sterling roses. Not even Jack knows they were my favourite when I was a girl." I then opened John's note, and read it aloud. "'One for each life, and may each be more beautiful than the last. Thank you twice, Love you always, John'."

"What does it mean?" Ianto asked me, bemused.

"A Time Lord has thirteen lives, Ianto," I murmured. "The one we're born to and twelve re-generations. 'Thank you twice'... That must be for saving him and for forgiving him."

"I never thought John Hart... thought that way," he admitted.

"He's complicated," I shrugged, smiling. "I wonder who he robbed to pay for these..." Ianto was turning his envelope over, then back again, but hadn't opened it. "What does yours say?" I prompted him.

"Hopefully nothing poetic," he remarked, still looking befuddled. "Huh," was all he said upon reading his card.

"What?"

"'The two people I love most in this Universe are in your care. Keep that in mind, Eye-Candy. John'. Is that a threat or something? Somehow I don't think it is..."

I knew the answer to that, but I walked him through seeing it for himself. "Even though it's a red envelope?"

"It matches my tie," he showed me what I'd already noticed. "I mean... it matches it exactly."

"What else?"

"It reads like a double entendre," he pointed out. "I think what he's saying is 'take care of them for me, and if you fail me I'll... kill you'," he concluded, looking both astounded and uncomfortable.

I chuckled, nodding. "That's John." Then I added, "He must really like you."

"Why do you say that?" he inquired.

"Don't see a note for Jack or Gwen, do we," I pointed out.

He pondered this, then asked me, "Why does he call me that? Eye-Candy?"

I shrugged. "He thinks you're pretty. I guess he meant it as a put-down at first, but it stuck. When I was little he called me Mouth, because I talked too much," I told him. "The day before my eighth birthday, when he gave me this," I said, holding up my wrist strap, "he asked me to close my eyes, then kissed me as he put it in my hand. 'Don't lose it, Mouth,' he told me. 'Come and see me soon.' That was the last time I saw him until Earth."

"So John was your first kiss, not Jack," Ianto pondered. "Does Jack know this?" I shook my head, smiling a naughty smile, and yet blushing. "Your secret's safe with me," he told me, kissing me tenderly.

* * *

1) John Barrowman and Naoko Mori once starred in "Miss Saigon" together in the West End. Couldn't help myself. And yes, the following Torchwood actors sing professionally: John Barrowman (Jack), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto), James Marsters (John Hart), and Naoko Mori (Tosh). Musical Torchwood would have _so_ rocked! ^_^

2) This perfume actually exists. It was a Limited Edition "Burlesque" scent by Moxie Beauty. It reminds me of Martha. And yes, it cost me 10 quid, but no, you can't have it. ;)

3) From the TV series _Roar_, starring Heath Ledger. I have this tattooed on my left wrist.


	6. Chapter 6

It wasn't very long after that when Martha came bustling through. "Sage, Ianto, I'm sorry. I've been recalled. I've got to go," she said, sounding distressed. We both stood. Ianto embraced her first.

"Well, we knew we couldn't keep you," he murmured. "I hope it works out, whatever it is."

"I hope so, too. It's... Oh, I wish I could tell you! Just one thing, Ianto..."

"Anything."

"Make sure Jack doesn't buy Sage that car he's been talking about, all right? I can't explain... Just make sure he doesn't."

"All right," Ianto agreed, looking concerned and puzzled, but trusting that there had to be an important reason for so odd a request.

"Sage," Martha said, leaving Ianto's arms for mine. "Keep them safe for me, all right? This might be nothing. I _hope_ it's nothing..."

"But it doesn't _feel_ like nothing," I finished for her. "Promise me something, Martha, please?"

"What is it?"

"No matter what happens... Don't tell my father about me. Don't tell him we've met, where I am, or even that I'm alive. Can you promise me that?"

"Sage, he should know," she chided.

"I'm serious. It's very important," I told her. "Promise me. No matter what, please don't tell him."

"I promise," she said frowning. "I don't like it, but if it's that important to you, I promise I won't mention you to him."

"Thank you, sweet Martha. Do be careful. I hope you can come back to see us soon," I said, kissing her on the cheek.

She hugged both of us again, one per arm, and then finally left.

"Will she be all right?" Ianto asked me. Silent tears started streaming down my face. "Oh, don't cry," he whispered, pressing my face to his shoulder.

"It's worse than she thinks," I whispered so only he could hear me. I didn't want it on CCTV. "It's so much worse... We need to stay close to the Hub. I don't know exactly when it will happen."

"When what will happen?" he pressed, keeping his voice low.

"We'll be fine," I told him. "This is the safest place in the world to be. I'll take care of you."

"Are those Sterling roses?" Jack suddenly said behind me. Ianto and I both jumped. "Wow. Those are expensive. Which of your dashing young men sent you those, Sage? Or was it Laura?"

"It was John," I told him. The look of surprise on his face was exquisite. "They're just a thank you," I downplayed them.

"I wonder who he robbed to pay for those," he mused aloud. "Why Sterling?"

"Because purple roses are my favourite. We had them back home, on Gallifrey." He stood there, frowning in silence. "Jack?"

"I was just thinking about a song... '_Forget my shoulder/ when you're in need /Forgetting birthdays/ Is guaranteed/ And should I love you, you would be/ The last to know_…'" he sang softly.

"'_I won't send roses_'," I put in, plucking one from the vase, "'_but roses suit you so_.' (1) One for each life," I told him, handing him a long-stemmed purple rose. "This one's yours."

Jack smiled as sad smile. "No Sage. I'll probably still be around when you've breathed your last. This one's for Ianto," he concluded, then handed him the rose. "Forever's overrated," he said. "Even when it comes to love. We always lose the ones we love."

"If there was a way, Jack, I would find it," I told him, kissing Ianto's cheek. "But I promise, as long as I _haven't_ breathed my last, I'll do everything in my power to keep him safe."

"I don't want to live forever," Ianto told us gravely. "I just want to _live_."

And with that he set the rose back in the vase with the rest, and we all went home.

* * *

"Did she say anything to you when she left?" Jack inquired of Ianto. I was on Jack's other side, dozing with my body pressed against his back, but not actually asleep.

"She said something rather odd, actually. Something about new cars. To tell you not to buy Sage that new car you'd mentioned. Any idea what she meant?" Ianto ventured.

"New cars? The only thing different about cars nowadays is that ATMOS thing. It all sounds too good to be true to me, and if that's what Martha meant, I guess it must be."

"Pollution-free cars," Ianto mused. "Toshiko thought they actually worked, so I suppose they do, but she seemed worried. I wish now that I'd asked her why."

"Martha must suspect alien intervention. It's the only explanation for her telling Sage," Jack concluded.

"Sage knows something. She said she doesn't know when 'it' will happen, but she didn't explain what she meant. She was scared, though, Jack... I mean, she ran blindly to save John from the Arteran Seek… no fear. But this, whatever it is that she sees coming…"

"We'll stay close to the Hub tomorrow," Jack concluded. "Safest place on the planet, and maybe some of what we've got can stop what's coming."

"I do hope so, Jack," Ianto murmured. "I can't bear to lose you. Either of you."

"Neither can I," Jack agreed, drawing Ianto close and kissing him tenderly. They fell asleep holding each other, and I eventually did as well, with one arm thrown across both their waists.

Thing is, I didn't know exactly what was coming, only that it was wrong. It was something huge and terrible, but I couldn't see through the fog. I couldn't ask Faith, either; there's only so many favours you can ask of someone like her before you become a burden rather than a friend.

All I really knew was that our survival would very likely depend on me.

* * *

"Laura, you really should stay here today," I said, trying not to sound overly concerned.

"There's work to be done, Sage, and not even Jack could keep me from it today," she replied. "I'm wired. I really think I can accomplish a lot. If you're feeling lonely since Martha left, I am sorry. It shouldn't interfere with work, though."

"All right," I agreed softly. "Just... keep your comms with you, all right?"

"Always. No worries. I'll see you," she said before leaving.

Jack was pacing in his office. Ianto was pacing in the greenhouse. Gwen was out somewhere, supervising yet another road repair issue with Rhys. I went to Tosh's old station (I still didn't think of it as Laura's... I just couldn't) and tracked the GPS on Gwen and Laura's mobiles.

I stayed there all day. A few times during the day Ianto brought me coffee or urged me to eat something. I complied, but I refused to leave Tosh's desk. I widened the range of the scan to include London, to track Martha's mobile. At some point in the afternoon she blipped right off the screen.

"Jack?" I called out, but it was Ianto who came at a run. "I've lost Martha's GPS," I told him. "There one moment, gone the next."

"Could be she's in a basement or something, Sage," he told me cautiously. "She'll probably come back on screen soon enough."

"Where's Jack?"

"Same as you. Glued to his computer. He's watching the news, though. Has been for about three straight hours now," Ianto reported. "I've locked Myfanawy in," he then told me. "Whatever's worrying you is big. I thought it'd be prudent."

I smiled at him. He thought of everything, my sweet Ianto. "Sit with me?" I asked him. He did. We waited for Martha's GPS to come back on, but it didn't. I discovered later that the area where she was had been blanketed with a dampening field. At the time, though, I was staring at the computer screen and hoping Ianto was right and that there was nothing to worry about. A few hours later, I stopped hoping and narrowed the field back down to Cardiff to keep a closer eye on Gwen and Laura. In the interim, Martha's signal finally came back online, but I never saw it, as mere moments later all hell broke loose.

"Sage!" Jack cried out from the doorway of his office. "Get the others. Bring them in _now_! Ianto, _lockdown_!"

Neither of us stopped to ask. Ianto ran to hit the panic button, air-locking us in. I hit my teleport and set out to find Gwen.

* * *

1) "I Won't Send Roses" from Jerry Herman's _Mack & Mabel_.


	7. Chapter 7

"It's the ATMOS!" Rhys cried out when I showed up. There was a white mist, some kind of gas, coming from every car in the vicinity.

"Hold on to each other!" I yelled to him and Gwen over the din of everyone else's screams, then grabbed onto them and teleported them into the Hub.

"What the bloody hell—" Rhys began.

"I've got to get Laura," I said, teleporting back out to Central Servers. "Laura!" I called out, having wound up beside her car, which was belching ATMOS gas along with the rest. I could see her mobile on the driver's seat. "Laura," I hit my comms. "Where are you?" She didn't answer, and I had run out of time. People were beginning to pass out from the effects of the gas, and I couldn't tell whether they were dead or merely unconscious. As a last resort, I sent out a loud thought: _Laura Harding, can you hear me?_ I couldn't sense her, though. She was probably unconscious with the rest. Or worse, dead. "Damn it!" I blurted, then teleported back to the Hub.

* * *

"Worldwide," Jack was saying when I arrived, coughing. "Sage, where's Laura?"

"Left her mobile in the car and switched off her comms, Jack," I told him tearily. "I couldn't find her and I couldn't sense her. Whatever that gas is, it's got her."

"Loan me your wrist strap," he said.

"Jack, she's gone," I said. "You'll do no one any good if you go out there and die."

"This is probably a mistake, but I'm going to go get John," he clarified. "This is happening on a massive scale, worldwide, and I just got voice-mailed."

I took my Vortex Manipulator off and tossed it to him. "Make sure you find him," I said. "There's about a million cabs in New York with bloody ATMOS installed."

"I will," he said, then was gone. About half a minute later he returned with a rather shell-shocked looking John Hart hanging onto him for dear life.

"I thought John could teleport in here," Gwen remarked as Ianto went to help John into a chair.

"Not under lock-down," Jack clarified. "Trust me, he tried."

"I'm all right, Eye-Candy," John said, sounding a bit irritated. "Where's Sage?"

"I'm here, Johnny," I said, going to him. "Are you really all right?"

"Nothing like getting gassed, teleporting, bouncing off a deadlock seal, getting gassed again, and then getting a last-minute rescue," he quipped. "I didn't think you could get in and out of it; I was hoping Jack would lower it and let me in."

"Front door keys, John," he remarked, tossing me my wrist strap. "We're under lockdown. Only my frequency or Sage's can get in under those circumstances, and my teleport doesn't currently work."

"Your brainy Asian friend's handiwork, I would imagine," he guessed. "She was a wonder... Sage, where's your blonde? You said we had blonde."

"We?" Jack echoed, somehow managing to retain his sarcasm under such tense circumstances.

"I couldn't trace her. She's still out there," I admitted.

"Who's this then?" Rhys inquired.

"A friend," Gwen told him.

"Are you the husband?" John inquired, eyebrow raised.

"Aye," Rhys said. "What of it?"

"Lucky sod," John remarked.

"Jack, do you think it's killing them?" I inquired tearily.

"I don't know," he admitted. "News is off the air. The news crews passed out."

Ianto put his arms around me and pulled me close, but when John started coughing again, I pulled away. "Johnny?" He was starting to go pale and was looking rather blue around the lips. "He needs oxygen," I said. "Someone help me with him!" Jack helped John up, then Ianto took his other arm and slung it over his shoulders. "Of all the times to be without a medic," I blurted. "Johnny, hang on." We got him over to one of the med bays and I put him on oxygen, but he refused to lie down.

"Sit with me, Sage," John said when he was able to talk again. "You don't look so good yourself."

I sat next to him, and he put the oxygen mask over my nose and mouth. I tried to push it off, to make him put it back on, but Jack intervened. "He's right, Sage. Whatever that gas was, it affected you more than you're admitting. And hey, don't stop John Hart when he's in a sharing mood. It almost never happens." Jack clapped him on the shoulder, kissed me on the forehead, and went off to Tosh's desk to check the computer's readings. Jack saw that Martha's mobile had come back onto the grid, but it was far too risky for any of us to venture out of the Hub, so he didn't tell us. He was playing his cards close to his vest, and though I was angry when he later admitted to it, he was ultimately right.

Meanwhile, Ianto was watching me with John, trying to remain stoic, but I could see the look of jealousy and hurt in his eyes. "Ianto," I said when John had the mask back on, "could you get us some water? That stuff is rough on the throat, whatever it is." He started to turn to leave, but I grabbed his hand. "Hey. Come here," I said softly. He looked at me inquiringly, still silent. "Come here," I repeated, my voice soft and pleading. When he was near enough, I leaned up and kissed him softly on the lips. "We'll make it through this," I whispered. "I promise."

Ianto kissed me back, twice, then left to get the water I'd asked for, tears still in his eyes in spite of the small, fleeting smile that had crossed his lips.

"He's got it bad for you, Mouth," John said, sounding grave. I pushed his hand back to his face, but he pulled the mask away. "Did you like them? The roses?"

"I love them," I told him, pressing the mask back to his face again. "I put them in Jack's office."

"What? Why?" he asked, sounding offended.

"Because I had them in Ianto's and I was _expecting_ lockdown today. I didn't want them left out there while I was locked in here," I explained.

"You knew disaster was coming and you even thought of the _roses_?" John inquired. This time he sounded impressed. Very impressed. "You're the better wife," he told me, kissing my cheek. "You and Eye-Candy both. Either of you alone could take better care of that arrogant man than I ever could, but the two of you... Well, I wish I was Jack. Or you. Or even that poor boy who's pretending to be so strong for you," he remarked, as Ianto came our way with two bottles of water. "I hope he appreciates the two of you," John whispered. "_I _would." Ianto opened one bottle and waited for John to take his arm from my waist to take the water. "You're a good man, Ianto Jones," John said. Ianto looked taken aback. "It's a compliment. Enjoy it. As Jack would tell you, they don't come often."

"Probably because you only compliment with the truth," I pointed out.

John chuckled because he knew I had him pegged; he nearly always lied. "Mouth," he teased.

"Ianto," I asked as I was being handed the second bottle of water, "are Gwen and Rhys all right? They got quite a lungful of that ATMOS stuff themselves."

"They're fine," he reassured me. "You were out of here before Jack had finished saying 'lockdown'."

"Are you sure?" I fretted.

"I promise, Sage. They're fine. Rhys is re-heating left-over pizza and Gwen is pestering Jack. See?" He pointed to each of them.

"What's Gwen pestering Jack about?" I inquired, and Ianto winced. "What? Tell me!"

"Jack's got a lock on Laura's comms even though they're off. You can't get out, though, Sage," he told me, moving my hand as gently as he could away from my wrist strap. "He's locked both your frequencies into the Hub. He called it 110% lockdown."

"Knows her too well," John remarked.

"D'you think Martha's all right?" I pressed.

"UNIT has gas masks, air-tight bunkers... She's as safe as we are, Sage," Ianto told me, but I knew he was just trying to make me feel better.

"She was at the ATMOS factory, Ianto, not a bunker," I reminded him.

"You're right," he conceded. "But we did lose track of her. Maybe because she went somewhere _like_ a bunker, inside the factory. I don't think these people intended to gas _themselves_."

"Good point," I agreed, punctuating the statement with a cough.

John pressed the oxygen mask into my free hand. "Stay with her, Eye-Candy," he said, getting up. "I think I'll raid your kitchen with Dough-Boy."

Ianto sat at my right and watched John saunter over to the kitchen. He said something that made Rhys laugh, mere moments after having made a sleight about his weight. But that was John. "Do you trust him?" Ianto asked me.

"No," I admitted, "but I know him. What I don't know from experience, I know from Jack. We may need him before all is said and done."

"What do you mean?"

"He thinks differently than the rest of us. Not necessarily better, but different. Different is good. He tends to think of things that would never even cross my mind," I mused.

"Do you love him?" Ianto asked me, and I nearly choked on a sip of water.

"We're friends, Ianto," I replied honestly. "I don't trust him, but I like him, and I don't want him to die. So yeah, I love him, but it's not the same thing. Without trust... it never _can_ be."

Ianto seemed satisfied with that answer, wrapping his arms about my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. "How did you know about today?" he asked me softly. "You knew before Martha said."

"I saw it. In the Vortex," I murmured, "long ago. But all I saw was fog. It felt evil, and it was _fog_. When Martha came in yesterday morning, I saw it again, like it had been lurking under the surface of my mind until that moment. That's how I knew we were in danger, but that's all I knew. Martha told me a bit more; about the ATMOS factory, the suspicion of alien intervention... She asked for my help..."

"Why didn't you go?" Ianto prompted me.

"Because she said she was bringing my father in, too. He's UNIT, or was a long time ago. Never officially resigned. I... didn't want to face him yet. I'm going to wait for him to come to me of his own accord. Besides," I added, "you lot still need me."

"Always," Ianto murmured. He stayed with me, just holding me, until Jack called him away to make coffee and see about food other than pizza.

"Y'all right?" Rhys asked me. He'd noticed me sitting by myself, staring at nothing, lost in thought.

"Yes. No," I murmured. "All those people..."

"I know," he remarked. "I saw it in yer eyes the moment you came for us. How many ye'd be leaving behind."

"It's not fair," I whispered.

"Never is," Rhys remarked. "This job of yours... this life... it's made up of hard choices. Sometimes they get to ye and make ye a hard person. It's happening to Gwen. Every day she's a bit tougher, a bit more jaded. But you..."

"Yes?"

"Ye're just so very _sad_," he pointed out. "Ye can't save everyone, Miss Smith. Ye're just one person. But those of us ye _do_ save... we're grateful for ye, Alien New Girl," he told me with a kind smile.

"Thank you, Rhys," I said softly. "Trust me, you're worth saving."

"Miss Smith..."

"Sage."

"Sage," Rhys started over, "ye can't hold yerself responsible fer the whole world."

"I am, though," I whispered. "It's my job."

"Torchwood—"

"Time Lord," I amended. "My people, before they died out, were responsible for the entire Universe. The whole of existence. For me to keep Earth safe... it's really not so much to ask of me."

"Then take care of yerself, too, miss. If only because we need ye," Rhys murmured, kissing me on the cheek before going back to Gwen.


	8. Chapter 8

Somehow Ianto managed to make dinner appealing for everyone out of military rations and leftovers. Jack and John had us laughing, but there were awkward silences when we would remember that the world was crumbling and so many of the people we loved were unaccounted for. I didn't eat much. When it wasn't worry distracting me, it was Ianto. He kept staring at me with an odd mixture of sadness and longing.

After half an hour or so, I excused myself and wandered away from the table, not really watching where I was going... not even caring. Behind me Jack almost said something, but John shook his head. It was subtle, but I saw it and was grateful to him for it. I wound up in the firing range, venting my frustrations on paper targets, wooden targets, everything not alive I could point a gun at. I was raging at them, screaming, not bothering with any kind of protective gear, tears streaming down my face. I had slumped to the floor, two empty guns in front of me, when Ianto finally came in.

He hunkered down behind me, wrapping his arms around me gently, cautiously. "Hey," I said softly.

"Feel any better?" he asked me in his soft, gruff voice.

"No," I admitted, drying my eyes.

"Me neither," he admitted, lifting my hair away from my neck and pressing his lips to the tender spot below my right earlobe, making me gasp. "Sage... I don't know how much longer I can do this," he murmured.

"What?" I blurted, thinking he meant to break things off between us.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep myself in check around you," he admitted.

"Then don't, Ianto," I told him, trembling in his arms.

"I have to," he told me. "I promised."

"Promised whom?" I pressed.

"Myself," he whispered. "I promised myself to take it slower with you. I promised myself it would be beautiful."

"It will be," I whispered back, another traitor tear slipping from my eyes. "Help me up, Ianto? I'd like to go back now. Check the readings. Check the television. Anything."

"All right," he conceded, and that's what we did. We went back up to the others. Went back to our duty. It was, for the moment, the best we could do.

* * *

"Hello, John," I murmured, not looking up from Jack's monitor.

"Anything yet?" he asked me, pulling up a chair beside me.

"Static, mostly," I told him. "That and 'stay in your homes, stay out of your cars'... Nothing new for an hour now."

"You're hiding," he pointed out the obvious. "Who from?"

"Leave it, Johnny."

"Eye-Candy," he guessed, pulling one of my Sterling roses from the vase and tickling my face with the petals. I pulled it from his hand, only succeeding in cutting us both with the spines.

"Oh, shit, Johnny, I'm sorry," I blurted, even though I was cut far worse than he was.

"Let me see," he told me, forcing my hand open. I had two long gashes and a puncture to his one small scratch. He very deliberately laid his bleeding palm over mine, wound to wound.

"What are you doing?"

"Making something right," he said enigmatically.

"I'm lost," I admitted.

"Torchwood DNA," he said. "There's a bit of each of them in my blood. Jack and Gwen and Eye-Candy, Toshiko and the doctor... Owen. Now a bit of you. And now they'll live on in you, too," he said.

"How did you get Torchwood DNA?" I asked him.

"Ask Jack," he told me. "It's not a pretty story." He then proceeded to tear a swatch of cloth from his shirt and bind my hand with it.

"John!"

"Not very hygienic," he said apologetically, "but it'll do for the moment. You're dripping. Come on."

"But your shirt!"

"It's material. Doesn't matter. Come on."

"You've changed, Johnny," I remarked as I followed him downstairs.

"Yeah, well, don't put me up for canonization just yet. It's just a shirt, not one of my limbs," he quipped.

"What the hell happened?" Jack asked as we reached the foot of the stairs.

"Roses have thorns, apparently," John said.

"D'ya think? Let me see," he told me. I meekly held out my hand. I was bleeding enough to have soaked through the cloth. "You need stitches, Sage. How did this happen?"

"Roses," I murmured, blanching. "Thorns. It's the thorns that make them beautiful," I whispered before fainting in Jack's arms.

* * *

"—wasn't being sarcastic, actually. Most Sterlings _don't_ have thorns," John was saying to Jack, who was carefully stitching my wounded right palm.

"Ianto, irrigate again, please; I can hardly see what I'm doing," Jack said. "I know that, John," he then told the man who was fretting and pacing on the other side of the cot I was lying on. "Kind of surprised that _you_ do, but never mind. Accidents happen."

"My fault," I said muzzily.

"Don't talk, Sage," Ianto murmured. "You nicked a vein in your wrist and you lost a lot of blood, but you're all right."

"Where's Owen?" I asked him, confused.

"She's really out of it," Jack murmured. Ianto looked like someone had just run over his dog.

"Was it '63?" I asked Jack.

"Was what 63?" he asked me, trying to concentrate very hard on putting me back together. He was trying hard not to cry, though.

"Last time you stitched me up. Bar fight," I reminded him. "I got stabbed. No anaesthetic."

"How'd she get stabbed?" John asked Jack.

"Protecting me," he replied. "Same as always. Got between me and this other guy twice her size. As if he could have hurt me."

"Hurts _me_," I murmured.

"What does, Sage?" Jack asked me.

"Every time you die," I murmured, starting to grey out again.

"No, Sage, don't you dare, you stay awake!" Ianto shouted, raging at me.

"Love you, Ianto," I whispered, drifting. "Sweet boy."

"Loud boy," John remarked. "Mouth, you open your eyes. You're scaring them. Damn it, you're scaring me, too."

"Can't tell him, Johnny," I murmured.

"Who?"

"Jack."

"What can't you tell him?"

"How he dies."

"Jack dies—"

"For forever," I whispered. "Don't tell him."

Jack stayed quiet, giving John a meaningful look, prompting him to ask me. "How does Jack die forever, Sage?"

"Saving us all," I whispered. "Long time from now. Long time. I'll die, too, when Jack dies. Last death for us both. I saw it. I'll feel him go. I'll still be young, like I am now. Still Sage with the Miranda Small face. But I can't live without Jack. Not after losing Ianto. My other heart will break and I'll just fade away... like a rose."

"How will you lose Ianto?" John asked me. Ianto was shaking his head at him. He didn't want to know.

"Ianto?" I called softly, frowning. "I can't feel my hand," I said, opening my eyes, coming out of the haze, the trance... I've seen the CCTV of it since and I'm still not sure what to call it. The thing is, I don't remember seeing what I was talking about. I _don't_ know how or when any of us will die. "Oh... thorns," I remembered suddenly. "Poor Jack. I bet you miss Martha. When was the last time you played doctor? Back in '63, wasn't it?"

"You got between me and a knife," Jack said.

"As if you could ever die," I murmured. "You'll probably outlive the last of the Time Lords," I said. "Hi, Johnny. Is that Ianto's shirt?"

"Jack," Gwen called out. "Something's happening at UNIT. Code Red, Sontaran?"

"My dad," I blurted. "I should have known! Stupid Time War. Of course Sontarans. Shit!"

"Hold still, Sage," Jack told me gently. "Ianto, can you—"

"I can," John interrupted, seeing the look of panic on Ianto's face when Jack attempted to hand over the needle. There wasn't much left to stitch, but Ianto was no soldier. It wasn't something he'd ever had to do before. "Between us we can manage, right, Eye-Candy?" John said diplomatically.

"What the hell are Sontarans, Jack, and why does Sage say she should have known?" Gwen inquired.

"Warrior race," Jack explained as he went to the computer. "_Clone_ warrior race."

"Like in bloody Star Wars?" Rhys blurted. "What next?"

"Sage thinks she should have known because of the components of the gas," Jack told Gwen, ignoring Rhys for the moment.

"But there's an unidentified substance. How would she have known?" Gwen asked him.

"If she'd finished school, she'd have seen through it right away, just like her father must have. They're not just gassing us, Gwen. They're converting our atmosphere."

"Into what?" she pressed.

"Clone soup. That unidentified substance must be what they use to feed the clones during their developmental stage. Is that right, Sage?" he said.

"Exactly right," I called out. "What's UNIT doing?"

"Something stupid. They're going to try to nuke them," he told me.

I chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Gwen asked. "What's funny about nuclear weapons?"

"For one, they won't even scratch a Sontaran ship," Jack told her.

"And for another, my dad won't let them launch, right Jack?" I put in.

Jack was about to say something when his interface with UNIT, which I'd hacked myself when Martha had gone off the screen, suddenly went blank. "What the...? Sage, UNIT's network just crashed."

"Did your dad do that?" Gwen put in.

"Nah, not his way," I said. "He likes to negotiate. We've got a mole. A _clone_ mole."

"So it could be anybody?" Rhys asked.

"It's Martha, isn't it, Jack," I said.

"How long have you known?"

"An hour or so. I saw right before I went to watch the news. Why didn't you tell me she was back on the grid?"

"I wasn't sure if you knew a way past Tosh's deadlock lockdown," he admitted.

"I don't," I told him. "Not yet."

"Why didn't you tell me you knew?"

"Because I was too bloody pissed off at you," I admitted. "Is she at UNIT?"

"Before her GPS went back off the grid, yeah, that's where she went. Or where her clone went, anyway," he said.

"Thanks for not telling me, Jack," I said.

"Did she just thank him for _lying_ to her?" John asked Ianto. He was nearly done with my hand.

"I believe she did. Yeah."

"Why do you sound relieved that Martha's been cloned, Sage? That's the maddest thing I've heard all week, and this has been one hell of a week," Gwen inquired.

"It means she's still alive," Jack explained. "Sontarans need to keep the original alive to maintain an effective operative. A clone with active, living memories."

"Wait, but that means the clone knows about _us_, Jack," Ianto pointed out.

"We're not a threat to the Sontarans," Jack said, sounding rather calm. "Torchwood One was, and they'd have taken them down, just like they're probably doing to UNIT right now, unless the Doctor got the fact that you can't beat a Sontaran in standard battle through their heads. We're cowards in their minds. Hiding in our little cave. They won't come after us unless the rest of the world falls and they succeed in turning Earth into a cloning base. In which case we're dead anyway."

"No," John put in. "In which case we get the hell off this rock. You lower your deadlock and I get us all the hell out of here."

"It won't come to that," I told him.

"Sage, you can't know—"

"My father will stop this. He has to. Even if it kills him, he'll find a way."

"Sounds like Jack, your father," he murmured, something akin to admiration in his voice.

"No, not really," I told him. "But his enemies had a name for him that might give you some idea of what he's capable of. They called him The Oncoming Storm."


	9. Chapter 9

"The bloody sky's on fire!" Rhys cried out. He was right.

"My dad," I said "is _so_ cool."

"Your dad ignited the atmosphere?" Ianto asked me. Jack had allowed me to interface everything we were monitoring, including the news, into the boardroom TV screen. I was sitting in Ianto's lap, feeling very safe in spite of everything.

"Yep," I told him. "Atmospheric conversion. He's reversing it. Terraforming the Earth, I guess you could say. I doubt he built it, though. Somebody has some _very_ cool toys... Look! Skies are clearing, see? Oxygen, nitrogen, everything... going back to normal. Jack," I said, tossing over my wrist strap. "Get Laura."

He kissed me as he passed, rumpled Ianto's hair, and went to his office to open the lockdown enough for my VM's signal to pass.

"Is it safe?" Ianto asked me.

"Not quite. Not yet. Safe enough for Jack, though. I'm better off staying behind this rather convenient deadlock seal for the moment." John was staring at me. "My dad doesn't know I'm here. I don't want him to just yet."

"Do you think Laura survived?" Gwen changed the subject. I nodded.

"Look. Her signal's moving. Has been for about a minute now. And there's Jack, see? Come on, everyone. Downstairs. I doubt she's in very good shape," I said, rising and pulling Ianto behind me.

Jack teleported exactly where I'd expected him to: the same gurney where I'd very recently been laid out. "Sage, get over here!" he shouted. I let go of Ianto's hand and ran.

"Laura?" I ventured. She had her eyes open, but it took her a moment or two to recognize me. She reached out for my hand. I remembered just in time to give her the left.

"Don't you dare," Jack warned me.

"I won't," I promised him. "How bad?"

"She locked herself in a closet, so not as bad as it could have been, but bad enough. She needs a respirator, and frankly, I don't know how to run it."

"I do," Ianto spoke up. "I watched Owen enough times. Only thing is I've never... I don't know how to intubate," he admitted, embarrassed.

"I do," I said. "I was a nurse for a while in the seventies. Long story. Come on, Ianto. Let's save a life."

* * *

We took turns sitting with Laura through the rest of that day and into that night, as the world was getting back on its feet and dusting itself off. Part of the east coast of the US had been evacuated by ship. A sizeable portion of Tokyo had died in the street. It was a nightmare that made the devastation of Cardiff seem small by comparison. The Sontaran ship had been destroyed, though. We'd finally gotten through to UNIT, officially, and made certain of it. Martha Jones, interestingly enough, had gone missing. Jack was curious that I wasn't surprised, but I wasn't about to tell him that she hadn't left with my father of her own accord.

John could have left the moment Jack disabled the lockdown protocols, but he didn't. At first I thought it was because he didn't know where to go next; New York had been hit nearly as hard as Tokyo; but then I realized he'd simply decided to stay for a while. Jack didn't ask him to leave, and when I asked him why he said "Because he's helping. I think it's good for him."

Jack was right. When Ianto had taught me how to work the respirator, John had paid close attention. He spent more time at Laura's side than any of us, talking to her, or simply holding her hand, keeping an eye on her vitals... It was kind of sweet.

Gwen's family was fine. I'd insisted on checking on Tosh's family as well, posing as a Health and Safety representative over the phone. I'd even had Gwen call Owen's mother, and that old bat was fine as well. Jack called Martha's sister, Letitia, and made sure the Jones family was okay. They'd been less surprised than most of London and had come through the crisis fine. "Shaken, but fine," Tish had said.

The same could be said for us, I suppose. A crisis of that magnitude on the heels of our losses was bad enough, but we'd also nearly lost Laura, and had brought John Hart back into our lives and right into our inner sanctum soon after he'd tried to kill us, albeit not of his own accord.

I gravitated back toward Ianto. It wasn't that I loved Jack any less, or that I had any intention of coming between them. I knew something, more than one something, and Jack had a way of seeing right through me.

John might have been amused that the two secrets I was keeping were blonde. Jack probably wouldn't have cared much whether I kept one of them to myself, but the other was something he'd have wanted to know. She'd only been there for a second, though... and I had no idea how she'd done it. The other... well, she was stronger than anyone knew.

I'd wanted to warn Martha, but I couldn't. All I could do was have her promise not to say. After all, the two most important women in my father's life had tried to reach him, one of them succeeding... and neither one was me.

* * *

**[April 21, 2008 – May 4, 2008]**

**Continued in "Torchwood: Roses and Thorns"**


End file.
